Welcome Home Little Laptop....Come see what I have been working on....

My friend was able to "fix" my laptop....okay, the battery is completely dead and my A/C connection is loose...the DVD/CD drive is toast BUT I can access my OHS spinning thesis and photos that I hadn't already uploaded...or is that downloaded...over to the external hard drive.  I'm a happy person! that is starting to shop around for a new source of technology.

Last week we were completely blindsided and any creative cell in my brain disappeared.  (Everyone is healthy...that is always the first thought on bad news). It was one of those moments where you are left speechless and you feel all the connections in your brain snapping as you try to make sense of what you are hearing. I woke up with this morning with the resolve to keep moving forward and to stop second guessing myself.  I wasn't called in to work today so I have headed downstairs to tidy the sewing room.  Then it dawned on me that I have yet to get something for my new little nephew for Christmas.  We are sending the parcel out west tomorrow. Typically we each draw a name and make just one gift for the person whose name that we picked.  This little guy wasn't around when names were picked and being his favourite only aunt on this side of the family, I had better step up to the plate and do something.  I have yet to make him anything with the hectic summer and fall that we have had so rather than tidying I have pulled fabric out.

But first...what have I been up to?

• Finished my dad's Christmas gift...sorry...no photos (just in case he decides he should actually read my blog...highly unlikely but you never know).
• I have been helping my husband and daughter's with their gifts...mostly teaching them how to sew, etc....again no pics until after Christmas.
• I started adding colour to my thread painted portrait of my youngest daughter when she was 3.  I am using Prismacolour pencil crayons.  The photo doesn't do it justice (goal for 2013...learn how to take better photos)

• Our guild had a request for approx 40 placemats to donate to Meals on Wheels.  They deliver the placemats to recipients of Christmas meals to make the holidays a little more special.  As a presidency, we challenged the members to make 80.  At our Christmas potluck last week, there were 96 beautiful placemats turned in.  I wish I had my camera...there were so many creative ones.  My wonderful husband made my potluck contribution so that I could actually find time to make a couple of placemats.

These are really simple but very effective for a quick and easy project (again my photos don't do justice....or maybe it is the horrible yellow light fixtures in this house.  I may have to do something about those too.)  I am going to make up some miniature ones for a little one who just loves tea parties with daddy.

Pattern source:  Pink Penguin (this links to the tutorial but definitely check out the rest of her blog...lots of wonderful inspiration!!)

• At the beginning of the month I attended a spin-in with the Atlantic Spinners and Handweavers.  I went to spin however they had a hands on day.  I wish my laptop was working so that I could have downloaded the instructions for these.  I have made some before but not as intricate as some of the ones that I saw at the workshop.  Inspiration came from the book Temari Traditions: More Techniques for Japanese Thread Balls (this is on my list to Santa)and a variety of other sources.

Here is a little eye candy that the workshop coordinator brought along

Some of the workshop projects in progress....

  

I should get back to sewing and the mess in the sewing room...I'm thinking a little Jelly Roll project.  This is what I pulled from my stash. Now to get cutting and sewing like there is no tomorrow (because really...it has to go in the mail tomorrow...why do we do these things to ourselves??)

PS....Hop over to the Quilting Gallery.  Michele is having a Blog Hop Party to Celebrate the Quilting Gallery's 5th Birthday.  I was hoping to get in on it but the computer issues killed that thought but there are lots of other blogs that are linked up with tons of inspiration AND give-aways.  Happy surfing and good luck!

December 1st!!!!...errrr....ummm...2nd!

The question of the day for Reverb'12 is was How are you starting this last month of December?

Based on my post title I think you can pretty much guess.  December 1st started with me going to bed around 2:10 am after a night of exploding marshmallows...long story...and preparing stuff for my daughter's dance comp team's bake sale table today.  There was so much food I could have shown up with nothing.  We got to the bake sale a few minutes late then my daughter headed off to assist her teacher with the pre-ballet dance classes.  A couple of hours later she was back to the bake sale to get me and was ready to go home for a quick lunch and a little R&R before I headed out with her and her sister to go back to clean up from the bake sale then pick up one of their "orphan" friends that they met in the musical (they had a play date with her yesterday).  Off we went to Ms Hannigan's house for an Orphan Cast Party.  Dad and I came back home so he could rest (he's been feeling yucky since last night) and I could work on my Dad's Christmas gift...it is almost done...I just need to sew up the opening in the seam where I turned it out.  I'm realizing I am not a fan of fusible interfacing...either I am using crappy stuff or I'm not doing something correctly as it does not want to stick.  I'm so used to hand sewing interfacing...I may revert back to doing that.  After losing track of time, we raced out the door to pick all the girls up a few hours later taking note that my girls had wet hair!  How is this possible?  They jumped in the hot tub in their clothes!  I should have expected that!! lol  As soon as we got home, I jumped back in to sewing while the family curled up to watch The Polar Express.  I have one placemat just about done...it just needs binding...and one to quilt and bind.  They are for Monday's guild meeting.  Somewhere in all of that I raced in to town to pick up a parcel from the post office and find a gift for the guild Secret Santa exchange.  I did manage to find time to take a hot relaxing bath before starting the placemats.  I needed a break!  It is now December 2nd and I am sitting here at 12:56 am wondering what happened to December 1st and my “be kind to yourself” mantra for the month!!!!!  As much as my goal for today was to finish the placemats to the point of needing binding, I am going to have to call it quits.  I am starting to get that "too tired" shaking feeling...must get sleep!